Sagay and the anti-corruption war

Wole Akinjayeju, Yaba, Lagos State, [email protected]: The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, has been a strict stickler and believer to rule of law all his life. From the little I know of Prof. Femi Odekunle, a member of the committee, he is a no-nonsense activist and dogged fighter when it comes to the issue of human rights and rule of law.

However, it appears to me, and I stand to be corrected, that with their membership of this committee, they have mellowed down in their fight against contravention of human rights and rule of law, even by the government they work for and this in my view is very unfortunate, to put it mildly. No doubt, the posts they occupy as Chairman and member of the committee respectively and the trappings of the posts seem to have affected the way the erudite duo react to violation of human rights and the rule of law these days.

What actually provoked this write-up is the front page headline in Sunday PUNCH newspaper, June 18, which screamed: “Buhari’s anti-corruption panel lambasts Presidency, judiciary”. In the report which featured on page 2 of the paper both Sagay and Odekunle were reported to have picked holes in the way the anti-corruption war was being prosecuted. They were also reported to have accused certain “compromised elements” in the judiciary and legislature of fraudulent practices while, according to them, some government officials lacked the diligence needed to prosecute the war against corruption.

In view of the above, one wonders what the duo are still doing in this government. In my view, they no longer have any moral right to stay a day longer in their posts in view of the above observations. In the first place, they could not offer necessary suggestions and advice to their principal and the government on the need to obey court orders, to desist from trampling on people’s human rights and to uphold the rule of law. More importantly, with their utterances at the event organised by the National Association of Seadogs in Abuja recently, which is paraphrased above, their loyalty to this government has been called to question. The most honourable thing for both of them to do is to throw in the towel, except they have been afflicted with what the renowned columnist, Dr. Dele Sobowale, called “Aso Rock Disease.” Their clinging to their posts, in view of these developments, amounts to staying in a house and urinating inside it.

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